If you’ve been clinging to your first or second generation Nest Thermostat, there’s some good news – a clever workaround now offers a way to bring Google’s devices back online.
When Google officially ended support for its early Nest models, many owners were left with thermostats that worked perfectly fine – except they could no longer connect to the app. For a product built around smart functionality, that felt like the end of the line. But a new open-source project by developer Cody Kociemba (via AndroidPolice) promises to change that, giving users a second chance to control their older Nests remotely.
The project, hosted on GitHub, effectively reroutes data from the original Nest platform to a new one. It’s not an official fix, and definitely not something Google endorses, but according to early testers, it works. Once the software is loaded, your thermostat behaves almost exactly as it did before: same interface, same controls, just under a different backend.
That said, this is not a plug-and-play rescue. Installing the custom firmware requires a bit of technical know-how, and comes with the usual disclaimers: proceed carefully, and you’re responsible if things go wrong. Kociemba’s detailed instructions walk users through every step, but it’s still a DIY repair at heart.
Of course, if you’d rather not risk bricking your thermostat, Google’s newer models or alternatives from Ecobee, Hive, or Tado remain safer bets. Still, for the more adventurous, this project offers a rare opportunity to breathe life back into tech that wasn’t built to last forever.
